the best and worst
by Ofwoodsandwaves
Summary: Klaus/Hayley post finale confrontation


Hayley slowly walked into the clearing, basked in moonlight, her body naked and shivering as a result of another painful transformation. Before the curse she had been able to change at will and painlessly, but with the curse came the horrendous pain, the same as her first transformation. As she walked under the moonlight, steadier after each step until she stood tall. Her whole body was darkened by dirt, her hazel eyes reflecting the moonlight.

She stopped a few steps inside the clearing, still a little away from the one who'd cursed her. Klaus stood in the center of the clearing, his mouth twisted in one of his cruel moue.

"Well, well. If it isn't my little wo-" Klaus' smug voice was cut off as Hayley jumped out of the woods and punched him in the face.

His head snapped backward but his left hand grabbed her wrist and squeezed hard enough to break bones. Blood dripped from his cut lip as he pulled at her wrist, forcing her to come closer to him, his right hand a vice around her neck. She could still breathe but the pressure was there, a reminder of what he could do.

However, she had never cared to worry about what he could do.

"You fucking asshole! I will rip you apart! Where is my daughter? I haven't seen her in three months and now what? You've decided to kill me after all?!" Her body weight had shifted slowly as she talked, leaving her free to knee him in the groin and escape from his grip. She ran back to the edge of the clearing, a low growl vibrating in her chest.

Klaus recovered quickly from her attack, and put himself back together. She braced herself for an attack but instead he laughed.

"I really did miss you, you know?" He shook his head, a whisper leaving his mouth, "no one but you." She heard him as if he had spoken in her ear.

She stopped looking back into the forest and decided to stand her ground, it seemed the unpredictable man had decided to behave for the night.

"What do you want? And where is Hope? I want to see my daughter!" As often happened since the last few months a storm of sadness overwhelmed her at the thought of her daughter being so close yet so far away. Of course, Hayley had been tempted to infiltrate the compound, as a wolf or on the full moon, but no matter how often Elijah repeated that Klaus did not want her dead and gone, it was hard to believe after what he had done to her.

"What I want? Why, Little Wolf, I came to give you what you want. You should be nicer to me," he started walking around, as he often did during his dramatical reveals, "after all I have found the loophole that could free you of this curse."

"This curse? Don't you mean your curse, the one you inflicted on me and my pack, after lying to me about Aiden," she raised her voice, clenched fists at her side, uncaring of her nakedness, "after shunning me out of every decisions concerning MY daughter's safety!"

In one second he had moved from the other side of the clearing where he had strayed, until his face was two inches away from hers. He roared, "OUR DAUGHTER! She is OURS and I did what I had to do to protect her."

"Ours?! That's easy to say now." She spat, anger and contempt in her eyes. "But it was too much to ask that you trust me with our daughter's safety. You couldn't even tell me the truth about Aiden's death."

"The truth? But Hayley you didn't want the truth! It was so much easier to believe that the monster had done it again, that of course it was I who'd betrayed our daughter. No matter what I said it wouldn't have mattered! You'd already decided that I was guilty!"  
Hayley stared at him, this invincible man with endless powers with his red eyes and his tearful betrayed act. She did not feel pity, or compassion, she only felt resentment. She took a step back from their stare off, looked away, down in the woods, searching for words, to hurt, to explain, to be remembered.

"You want to know why I believed you did it, Klaus?" She glanced at him, his hands slightly raised around her, to catch her if she fled, his eyes who roamed over her face, her body too. It was easier to stare into the woods. She continued.

"I believed you'd killed him because you said you did it. Why wouldn't I, when you admitted to it out loud! I wasn't even surprised that you tried to have someone spy on Jackson, but I couldn't understand why you would hurt someone who was protecting my- our daughter. He has no reason to do that, I thought. But you didn't try to explain yourself, you didn't say it wasn't you, you said you killed him. That's when I thought you guilty, when you admitted to it, instead of trusting that I would trust you."

He stared at her in silence, tried to speak, his mouth opening and closing, but he did not know what to say. His hand came to move her hair off her face but she flinched away, moved her hair herself.

"You say that now Little Wolf but then…"

"There is no then Klaus, you didn't even try! And then you went and told the truth to Camille, instead of me! You made me think that you didn't care for Hope's safety, you-" Hayley raised her hand to stop him from interrupting, "let me finish, please."

She inhaled deeply, her smaller body shaking. "You made me think that your games of politics and your manipulations mattered more than keeping the pack who protected her united. And you did that three days after you yelled at my face that I should just shut up and let you take all the decisions because obviously you knew better, even when you didn't! So yeah I tried to take Hope away from you, but you started it first. And anyway, it would only have been until things had quieted down. I wouldn't have kept you away from her forever. You're her father Klaus."

She looked up at the full moon, already on her downward curve and sighed, a completely miserable and heartbroken sound.

"You didn't have any problem doing that though, did you? You don't even care if I am in her life or not, you left me to rot in these woods under this awful curse that no one knows how to break because you don't care if I stay like this forever. You left Rebekah a way out and you punished Elijah by killing Gia but you didn't hurt any of them like you did me."

Her glowing hazel eyes closed, she looked quite divine, clothed in dirt, bathed in moonlight.

"So, Klaus." She looked him straight in the eye, "what do you want in exchange for my freedom."

He cocked his head on the side, he grinned with all his teeth, more wolf-like that she'd ever seen him. "Nothing, Little Wolf, I want nothing. You, however, need something from me. You see Dahlia anchored the spell not in your hybrid nature but in the bond you have with the pack, the bond you made through your wedding. So to break the curse you must betray your wedding vows. Not completely of course, we still want them to share your abilities, but enough that it would break the curse."

"And how do I do that?"

He smirked, looming over her like the cat who got everything, "a kiss to break the spell."

Hayley rolled her eyes, tired of his games and waited for him to tell her the truth. As he stayed silent, a smile on his lips, she understood that this was the game, this was the way to break the curse.

"I suppose that's why I need you then? Oh, Klaus, if you wanted a kiss all you had to do was say it."

Suddenly she grabbed him by the collar of his leather jacket, pulled him closer until they shared the same breath and kissed him, pouring all her anger in the kiss. Her other hand went to his hip, to hold herself up as he answered her kiss tenfold. His left hand fisted in her hair as he changed her angle, his other hand clawing at her back.

They kissed as they fought, passionately, releasing pent up anger, hatred and frustration but underneath the bites, the clawed back and the bleeding lips, were the slow licks to soothe the aches, the soft caresses and the hand combing her hair. Deep below all the negative feelings they had for each other, the knowledge that each needed the other, and more importantly wanted them in their lives. They were complementary, and they knew that they brought the best and worst of each other. That was enough for now.


End file.
